Wracked with angst over the fate of our beloved and horribly misgoverned Republic, the DiploMad returns to do battle on the world wide web, swearing death to political correctness, and pulling no punches.

Featured Post

We live in a time of government by con men, women, and those of flexible and reassignable gender. In the last few days this bitter truth ha...

Monday, February 9, 2015

Are They Really Journalists? No, They are Progressives and Must Lie

I have followed with moderate interest the tempest over NBC news "anchor" (weird word, that) Brian Williams, and his habitual "misremembering" of apparently dramatic events in his life. Perhaps foreign readers have not paid much attention to this sordid story, but American ones know that Williams, a fabulously well-paid "newsman" and "anchor" of the "prestigious" (cough!) NBC nightly news, got caught as a serial fabulist.

He told one whopper of a tale after another for years to pump up his personal resume and give himself some "street creds" among progressives who think that Williams and his ilk are intelligent, savvy, and bearers of the TRUE WORD.

As it turns out, ladies and gentlemen, he lied about saving puppies from a fire; about getting robbed by a gun-wielding mugger when Williams was a teen supposedly working for a charity on the "mean streets" of 1970s small-town New Jersey; about braving Hezbollah rockets in Israel; about watching bodies float down the Mississippi River during Katrina; about seeing a man jump to his death in a football stadium; and, of course, most famously, about flying on a chopper that got shot down in Iraq in 2003. Aside from proving a serial liar, he has become one of the most fawning, outright boot-licking fans and promoters of the disaster known as President Obama. He also has served as a regular on progressive TV shows, where he plays the part of the wise, humorous, Hemmingway-esque man of the world. He is the man who has seen it all, and who can with a knowing smirk or wink put down and dismiss all the deluded right-wing nuts out there. In other words, he is a hero and a product of the Hollywood-University-Media complex which has done so much irreparable damage to our nation and Western civilization.

Williams joins the ranks of other progressive "journalists" such as,

Dan Rather, who tried to throw an American election by pushing a patently false story about George W. Bush;

Janet Cook, who concocted a much awarded narrative of an eight-year-old heroin addict;

Jayson Blair, who fabricated a number of much-commented on stories for the New York Times;

Sabrina Erdely of Rolling Stone who spread the UVA fake rape story;

and, of course, who could forget, The Lord of Them All, Commissar in Chief Walter Duranty, New York Times apologist extraordinaire for Joseph Stalin and his mass murders in Ukraine.

You certainly can name many others.

I never met Williams, but during my long career did have dealings with other prominent "anchors"--one of whom nearly ended my career--and found them boring and idiotic. They were just actors: make-up, lights, dramatic pose, and read lines written by young staffers from the "best" schools. There was no journalism as most of us would think of journalism. The British have it mostly right. They call persons such as Williams, "readers," because they read the news to you. In one way, however, American "anchors" are not like British "readers." In our benighted Republic, "anchors" are vastly better paid, revered, and allowed a great deal of say over what and how they will report. In the recent past, if Williams, Rather, or Jennings did not want to report on something, then it simply must not have happened.

That little world of the "anchor," however, took a major hit with the invention of the internet by Al "Is it Getting Warm?" Gore--another fabulist of distinction. We now have millions of little "anchors" who can fact-check, provide alternative explanations for events, and bring sunlight to otherwise forgotten happenings and issues. Dan Rather, let us not forget, got brought down by bloggers. The internet also has debunked Williams. Imagine, just imagine, if we had had the internet in the time of Duranty, or even when the Saintly Walter Cronkite declared that we were losing in Vietnam when, in fact, we were winning . . .

There is something in the progressive mind-set that promotes, nay, requires compulsive lying. We see it in John Kerry and his fake stories of secret missions in Cambodia and his flying dog; Hillary Clinton and her Bosnian snipers; Susan Rice and her video explanation for Benghazi; Eric Holder with Fast and Furious; and even FDR who famously said these words now engraved on his DC monument,

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

In fact, of course, he saw none of these horrors. Those things tend not to happen in Hyde Park, New York.

The fundamental problem progressives such as Williams face is that the world is not as they would have it. Not at all. Many if not most of them have limited experience in the real world, having spent lives of wealth and privilege, sheltered in progressive educational institutions. They have very superficial knowledge of the world outside these bubbles, and rely, therefore, to a great deal on Hollywood. They incorporate into their personae the largely leftist rubbish pumped out by Hollywood.

In their world, the United States is still 1930's Alabama--or, better said, the Alabama of Hollywood. They want to unleash their inner Atticus Finch. In their world, murderers in the United States are middle aged white male business executives who kill black people instead of what happens in the real world where murderers are overwhelmingly young black men who generally kill black people. In their world, women can kung fu better and be bigger badasses than big burly guys, when, in fact, the opposite is true as shown by the progressives' contradictory and ceaseless calls for government to "protect" women from men. "I am woman! I am strong! Call the cops! Men are looking at me!" In progressive world, the KKK equals the Tea Party, when in the real world, the KKK served as the armed wing of the Democratic Party. In progressive world, Western civilization is the source for all the poverty and evil in the world, when, in fact, the concepts of liberty, justice, and human rights are Western constructs.

Your standard progressive activist has really done nothing very interesting, so he or she needs to get proper credentials, to show that he or she knows what's what, and that progressivism is what the world needs to deal with "problems"--after all, isn't life just a series of problems calling for progressive intervention? They want to see what they believe.

We, hence, have progressives making up the sort of stuff that puts them, the elite, in the center of the battle, on the ramparts, in the muddy trenches and downed helicopters with the common schlubs--the sort of worldly experience that allows progressives to tell us how to live our lives.

64 comments:

This is writing excellence! This blog post was featured in Facebook's World Think Tank in the 'World News Discussion', by Jonathan, a WTT member...which is how I learned of it. I have invited world thinkers to read this. Captain Rick of the World Think Tank on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WorldThinkTank/

Percentage of judicial nominees confirmed during Obama’s first term, 71.4% Percentage of judicial nominees confirmed during Bush’s first term, 67.3% -=-=-=-The Rules regarding Filibusters, which the Senate Democrats changed, were introduced about 38 Years Ago....by then Senate Democrats for their own political reasons.

Time Passes: Now the Senate Democrats find their old "Filibuster rules game" has hobbled their agenda instead of hobbling the Republican agenda, as per the Democrat Senate goal in 1975 (when democrats changed the rules to the rules they just dumped) Hence the "new Filibuster rules game"....for a Party out of ideas as well as unable to get bi-partisan consensus due to their extreme Liberal agenda....

To wit: "In 1975 the Democratic-controlled Senate[5] revised its cloture rule so that three-fifths of the senators sworn (usually 60 senators) could limit debate, except on votes to change Senate rules, which require two-thirds to invoke cloture.[18][19]"

"The Senate experimented with a rule to remove the need to speak on the floor to filibuster ("talking filibuster"), thus allowing for "virtual filibusters"..."

the current democrat senate tossed the inconvenient rules which a previous democrat senate had imposed in 1975...because the other party used them.

Progressive politicians repulse me but I have even more disdain for the progressives that fill the halls of ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NYT, LAT, etc. since the founders of this great country thought they could be relied upon to at least report the news in an unbiased fashion.

The first time i saw Brian Williams he was a guest on the Tonight Show - the third guest behind Jane Fonda and Cher.

Normally major stars would leave the set after their interview but not that night. Johnny was a little surprised both stars did not exit the stage. When Williams sat in the chair, Jane and Cher were on the couch whispering to each other and giggling like school girls while the oblivious Williams was enjoying being interviewed by Carson.

Good article (as usual) Bob but here you're essentially preaching to the converted. In Australia we have the same media oafs supposedly leading and forming our 'public opinion' and for the most part they are always wrong, misguided, deluded or just plain lying.There is a line from a rock & roll song by Australian band 'The Angels' and goes:"...hard-hitting journalist, says he's a communist, says he believes in World War 3!lives in a high-rent luxury apartment, he ain't fooling ME!..."Kind of sums it up really. (bear in mind the song is from the mid-70s)

This posted speech is so good, Dip, it has the timber of an old style rousing and meaningful Republican nomination acceptance speech, I was ready to stand up and cheer, and vote! Almost thought I heard an echo of "Now there you go again" "Tear down that wall", Ron.....WowJack

I think now the colloquial term is "speaking truth to power!", whereas you call it as it is: 'Atticus Finching' So many wish there was the kind of injustice found in tkmb, just so they could be against it. Sadly, they wish it so much, they wind up perpetrating such injustices themselves.

Ah, yes. Let's not forget Eason Jordan who famously admitted he spread the lies of Saddam Hussein because he wanted to stay in Iraq. He knew of the 'wood chipper' stories, but declined to report them so he would not upset good ol' Saddam.

Or the Chicago Tribune who Fitzgerald thanked for holding the Blago story "for over 8 weeks" on December 9th a month after Obama's first election.

And the liberal amongst liberals scandal: NPR's very own 'this american life' and the fictitious oppressed chinese iphone workers.I'm sure all their listeners heard it and said: "This meets my view of the world so perfectly, it must be true."

Like most others in the liberal sphere, the show is still on the air, and probably viewed just as credibly by its audience.

You would think that the media would spend a little time reflecting on the Eason Jordan affair, and how they are willing to serve as the propaganda arm of despots and murderers in exchange for access. But instead, they do with it what they do with all of reality that does not fit the narrative. They make it disappear. How else can you explain how easily they were manipulated by Hamas in the most recent conflict with Israel?

Roosevelt was in Europe from July-Sep 1918, and he returned Jan-Feb 1919.

I'm not a fan of the petite wannabe tyrant, but let's not call him a liar for saying he saw things he likely did see, or at least most of it. The regiment out of the line is the only thing in there that is questionable.

The left has lied to America constantly. From hiding FDR's physical disabilities through to the current "Gimme an 'O'" press cheerleading for some President. Voters choose based on information. Information is a Liberal's media play land where facts only seep out if they aid the Democrats.Here is FDR and Obama as Bookends for National Socialism, aka "Democrat Liberalism".

Democrats, with Liberalism, are the last 'ism' standing. The canard that Nazism is 'right wing' is a Liberal defense.All 1930's era National Socialist governments combined State, Industry and Social Welfare into one concept. All wave their respective flags as hard as they could.Hitler, FDR, Mussolini and the cult of personality.

FDR and the Democrats took a Recession and legislated it into a decade of economic stagnation and social experiments. America cut its military as it pandered to its weakest components.

Obama and the Democrats took a Recession and legislated it into 6 years and counting of social experimentation and a stagnant economy. Democrats want to fund illegal immigrants as they cut the military.

Voltaire said "History does not repeat itself, but people always do"

The cost of FDR's policies was blood and treasure spent in WW2 and unsustainable social welfareObama's bill is coming due.

In that this is February of the first Year of the GOP Congress, I'd suggest patience.I mean, look at how long Obama has been "Closing Guantanamo":

"Obama: He’s Dishonest and Incompetent":

2007: If elected Obama states: "We're going to close Guantanamo."2008: Elections: Obama promised to close Guantanamo "within days of taking office"2009: Within days of taking office Obama Promises to close Guantanamo by the years end.2011: Obama Promises to close Guantanamo AND "re-institutes military tribunals for detainees" at Guantanamo.2012: Obama approves the plan that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be returned to Guantánamo Bay for trial.2013 (January): Obama approves State Department shutting down the office of the envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.2013 (April): Obama states: "We're going to close Guantanamo." (see: 2007)

"In January, 2010, the Obama administration announced it would continue to imprison several dozen Guantanamo detainees without any charges or trials of any kind, including even a military commission, on the ground that they were “too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release.”That was all Obama’s doing, completely independent of anything Congress did.When the President finally unveiled his plan for “closing Guantanamo,” it became clear that it wasn’t a plan to “close” the camp as much as it was a plan simply to re-locate it — import it — onto American soil, at a newly purchased federal prison in Thompson, Illinois.William Lynn, Obama’s Deputy Defense Secretary, sent a letter to inquiring Senators that expressly stated that the Obama administration intended to continue indefinitely to imprison some of the detainees with no charges of any kind."AND:The ACLU's reply to Obama's plan to "close" Guantanamo by moving the detainees to a Federal Prison in Illinois:The Executive Director Anthony Romero said:"the administration plans to continue its predecessor’s policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees, with only a change of location."AND:"Obama’s “close GITMO” plan — if it had been adopted by Congress — would have done something worse than merely continue the camp’s defining injustice of indefinite detention. It would likely have expanded those powers by importing them into the U.S. "

That one we don't know is a lie - with all these other things we suspect it. He said his father was a volunteer firefighter, and somehow, he was too. One time he said the only thing he did was save one or two puppies. Earlier, he had told a tale of rescuing something and discovering it was a puppy. This is not necessarily a contradiction, as there could have been two incidents. Possible one was real and one was imaginary,

>> about getting robbed by a gun-wielding mugger when Williams was a teen supposedly working for a charity on the "mean streets" of 1970s small-town Indiana;

Not Indiana, New Jersey! Red Bank, New Jersey. Population 1960: 12,482. In Monmouth County.

Only there was very little crime in that area.

So you'd have to believe a robber with a gun came there - and what does he choose to rob, but the teenager selling Christmas trees!!

>> about braving Hezbollah rockets in Israel; about watching bodies float down the Mississippi River during Katrina;

Not the Mississippi River, but flooded New Orleans outside his hotel. (Just what floor was he on anyway? The lobby?)

Now the water was at most two inches deep there. He claimed a body (not bodies) floated by. This would have been reported to the hotel manager. And by some other reporter..

He also claimed to have contracted dysentery. Now the situation was that they were warning people not even to go into the water - but the truth is, this was scientific and medical nonsense. You need a pathogen, and that takes some time. Anyway he claimed water bottle fell into the water, and so some contaminated water got into his mouth.

Problem: No one else is known to have contracted dysentry around that time. And also, wouldn't that have taken him out of commission for up to a week? Everybody at NBC would have known. Now did they? Was he working seadily in the aftermath of Katrina or was he not?

>> about seeing a man jump to his death in a football stadium;

In the Superdome, where people who had failed to evacuate were told to go when the levees broke, and many people weren't being let out of.

Tom Brokaw was a victim of that in some interview of Brian Williams he did in 2010.

Later on, Brian Williams said he only heard about it. I'm not clear if this suicide actually happened at all. I think some did.

Tom Brokaw is reported to have written that Brian Williams should be fired or quit, but he denied that. He didn't deny saying something about how a lower ranking reporter would be fired. He also added that Brian Williams had to make a decision.

Brian Williams took himself off the newscast, but if you paid close attention to his statement, he was continuing to work as managing editor - the boss of the NBC Nightly News, and that's what he did on Monday. On Tuesday he was suspended for six months without pay.

>> and, of course, most famously, about flying on a chopper that got shot down in Iraq in 2003.

Brian Williams looks like he was covering things up. Originally his helicopter had been THE chopper that was hit But it was maybe known that another was, so he later said 2 choppers had been hit. He also said they were together but it wasn't really so. Three were together and the middle one was hit. His came later, on a separate mission, and by the time they got there, the hit chopper had been evacuated. They set down there. They were three for two days. Because of a sandstorm. They were also behind enemy lines. Brian Williams claimed to NBC that the crew had declined to be interviewed. This was not true. They had been willing and some in fact were interviewed on camera. But one had called Brian Williams an idiot. He had compared the situation to "Saving Private Ryan" and said that because he was so important they would be rescued.

I suppose the man who called him an idiot meant that they would be rescued anyway and that they weren't in big danger.

"A General/Admiral tells me [Journalist] a Private/Blackshoe did so&so very bravely and you wouldn't believe it unless somebody else of that rank told you how much duress was going on ... almost a Jessica Lynch rescuing her Brigade kinda thing blowing cappuchino spitballs outta her Starbucks Supplies US Troops Shock 'n Awe kinda thing then later, Jessica laid covering fire for the SEALs caught up in an ambush attempting to rescue Pfc Lynch."

What have we discovered in the past - however many days .. 10, 20[?] - not every Journalist .. especially the TV sort is a Michael Yon or an Ernie Pyle - was that discovery even close to an Earth-Shattering Discovery as learning not every Sandra Fluke (publicly funded albeit) orgasm was as Earth-Shattering as passing through some arbitrary period separating the years between which we wrote letters to Santa Clause then, learned the postage we paid good Tooth Fairy dividends was only a scam created by Nicholas Biddle?

Obama's mulling sending Javelin anti-tank rockets (with the approval of McCain & Lindsey what a surprise) to Western Ukraine ... anybody recall how/why we've come to the point there's a Western and an Eastern Ukraine anyway? Crimea?

and our attention is focused on howling National Enquirer style

"Brian Williams Never Saved Even A Single Damn Puppy!"

Oh well. I suppose it could be worse.

Haven't heard from Al Sharpton since Brian Williams pooped in his Wheaties.

You may've since checked the link - I note that it specifies one State Senator (Georgia) at least ... so I'd Infer from the article contents that the "100 newly elected senators" were not of course, all looking for their office space in DC.

The overlooked component of the NBC action in suspending Brian Williams is that it is certainly racist action. Why is Williams held to a higher standard than Al Sharpton? The lies and frauds of Sharpton were known to the network before he was ever hired.

PF.....that is a good observation. Lying Dickhead is a fairly new subgroup of Obama age Democrats. They are also known in larger metropolitan areas as "hipsters". Everything in their world is just oh so good.

Democratic Party Liberalism has gone from “I think, therefore I am.” to today's Liberal: “I believe – therefore it is.”

'Believe' is what Democrats do. There is no fact nor logic which can overcome a 'belief based in faith', especially when the Believers are backed by 'Consensus Science' and a strict PC code of word, thought and deed.

"Global Warming" is a Faith Issue to the Left. They wrap their Gaia-Group-Think in a cloak of pseudo-Science, and then smuggly demand a "solution" which 'coincidentally' reflects more Liberal No-Growth 'ideology' than it does 'ideas'.Their 'proof' is always in 'the future', bolstered by 'consensus scientists' now.

"Faith", a Belief in the Unbelievable, is what sustains most ideologies... from old religions to the new Enviro-Luddite "secular" ones.

Nothing shakes a "true believer" more than that which calls their "religion" into question or disparages it. This is not an issue of Science to the Left, it is gaming Science to achieve a 'Party Approved' "Future".

The irony is to be found in those who subscribe to the new "secular" belief systems while denying the validity of other religions.......-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Note that "Workers of the World, Unite!" was the slogan of the anti-Capitalist, anti-Industrialist and anti-Banker Left of the 1930's.Now it is "Save the Earth", which is the slogan of the anti-Capitalist, anti-Industrialist and anti-Banker Left of the 21st century...

The Management has shifted some, but the Targets Remain the Same... just Marketed under a New Improved Slogan.

At one point, a free press was supposed to be the conscience of the nation. It's horrifying to see it dominated by high-paid liars.

You say:

He also has served as a regular on progressive TV shows, where he plays the part of the wise, humorous, Hemmingway-esque man of the world.

I wonder if that role isn't one pushed on Williams by network executives, who will be ready to dump their "star" in the trash the moment there is too much hue-and-dry about his dishonesty? Come to think of it, Hemingway himself was scarcely a role model for the high school kids who find him a big part of their American literature curriculum. I read somewhere that Hemingway offered his services to Soviet intelligence back in the Spanish Civil War and was utterly horrible to the women in his life.

Sorry to butt in but Ernest Hemingway was a total asshole and his literary 'works' are puerile at best. He was never near the front anywhere during the Spanish Civil War but he made plenty of green writing about second-hand stories he'd heard from front fighters while he sipped pastis in Barcelona. Not unlike Brian Williams in fact. These parasites are a concomitant of war unfortunately; The men who fight the battles are pushed into the background by the lying wankers who invent the stories and take the credit and reap the rewards. The best thing Ernest Hemingway ever did was to suck on that shotgun barrel, I think he had guessed his time had come.

Thank you. Bless you for saying it. Could never stand Hemingway. Had to read some of his trash in high school. Awful. Just junk.

One of the ex-wives said, 'he's guilty of entirely too much drinking and too little washing'.

He was a complete pinko and his so-called 'direct writing style', praised as America's great writing method, was indeed puerile.

He's likely been so heavily promoted on account of his communist leanings. Interesting that the castro crime syndicate preserved his Finca Vigia in Cuba as a museum, whereas had his sentiments been more closely aligned with say, the great General Curtis E. Lemay, the cagasstro crime syndicate would have bulldozed the place.

Thank you for stating the truth about this over-hyped BS artist who couldn't write his way out of the paper bag that should be over Brian Williams' head.

OK, popular front, OK. Maybe I was in State too long and tend to understate or get too polite.

Paul Vincent: You're absolutely welcome. I got pretty tired of Hemingway's monosyllables early on. I also understand that Hemingway bullied John Dos Passos because the latter was skeptical of Communist claims.

My guess is that the British counterparts o Hemingway were why W.H. Auden ended up decrying the '30's as a "low, mean, rotten, lying decade".

When somebody following the 'religion of peace' goes on a terror spree, the media will be unable to identify which particular religion the act was performed in the name of.However, if someone from that religion is killed in a violent altercation, every single headline will tout how this person who was murdered was from that same 'religion of peace'.

Remember, it is the 'religion that must not be named', unless in relation to victimhood. There are no victims here, so keep quiet!

Great piece, Diplomad. Id like to add one more to your progressive "journalists" list: Herbert Matthews who is arguably responsible for convincing the world that fidel castro was the bestest, noblest, most awesomest thing ever since sliced bread.

As it turns out, ladies and gentlemen, he lied about saving puppies from a fire; about getting robbed by a gun-wielding mugger when Williams was a teen supposedly working for a charity on the "mean streets" of 1970s small-town New Jersey; about braving Hezbollah rockets in Israel; about watching bodies float down the Mississippi River during Katrina; about seeing a man jump to his death in a football stadium; and, of course, most famously, about flying on a chopper that got shot down in Iraq in 2003. Aside from proving a serial liar...

Shorter Diplomad: Williams saw the hole Cronkite's retirement left, and decided he was the one to fill it.

About Me

W. Lewis Amselem, long time US Foreign Service Officer; now retired; served all over the world and under all sorts of conditions. Convinced the State Department needs to be drastically slashed and reformed so that it will no longer pose a threat to the national interests of the United States.